It is the wonderful folks in ABF that deserve the credit, not me. Most of all, it is the composer himself, whose music has moved and inspired so many,

Kathleen is the one who really drives the passion for Chopin's music. Her enthusiasm is infectious.

I see no reason, if you want to comment, that we cannot do it here, since the recital is hosted elsewhere and comments won't clutter it.

I'll be starting another discussion thread because I am very, very interested to hear about everyone else's experience learning these pieces. Will wait a bit though, to give everyone a chance to listen to the whole thing.

There is someone who deserves special mention and a great big "thank you" in inspiring this recital:

C C Chang (CCC on PianoWorld). He's very busy finalizing publication of his book, "Fundamentals of Piano Practice." He will be announcing its publication here on PianoWorld very soon.

He breaks down the seemingly impossible (i.e. Adult "beginners" playing Chopin) into the possible and accessible. Without his book, I do not believe I would have had the confidence to suggest we could pull this off.

BookSurge is the publisher. I would highly recommend a copy of the book once it is published.

Originally posted by gerg: Sticky has been requested. However, one mod is in Japan, and the other is (hopefully!) recovering from a life-threatening injury, so I don't know how long it will take the request to go through... [/b]

Done. Note that I didn't get a request to make it sticky so if one was sent to both ShiroKuro and myself, at least I didn't get it.

I did not send you one because I did not know how available you were given that you need your rest.[/b]

Well, in between sleeping 18 hours/day, various treatments, visits to the doctor, consuming enough narcotics to make "Valley of the Dolls" look like a kids party and a very little bit of playing the piano, I've nothing but time on my hands

I just listened to all of these (except hershey88, as there was no link??). I know you all must be so proud. Your work (I can't begin to imagine how much you all put in!) is most impressive! And what a pretty website, by the way! Congrats, all!

Greg, that's harsh! At least you are getting the rest. I can only imagine the discomfort of the injury itself, of staying in bed so long. The human body is a miraculous contraption though - you'll be out before you know it.

Tina, I am hoping you will participate one of these days! Don't ever say "I'm not good enough"! Have you seen the Mazurka Marathon thread?

Just listened to all, except Hershey88's, which has no link, and Nancy's Op28-15, which got me an Internet Explorer error - didn't open. It's a wma file.

Kudos to all the wonderful pianists. I think we are stretching to call this an adult "beginners" forum.

I haven't heard most of these pieces before so it's a great musical education as well as great enjoyment to listen to. I really love no. 24. (I don't mean to belittle anyone's accomplishment. I mean the composition just stands out for me.)

Thank you very much again gerg and Kathleen.

C7, Glad to see that you seem to be in good spirits - I am sure that itself will speed up the healing. Sending good vibes your way, one more time. You've got lots of good vibes from the preludes!

btw gerg, I did notice the files are all systematically labelled, and the site is very well laid out, the graphics, the colors - the way the link color matches the border colors. Yes I noticed those details! Very good looking page indeed. The great music derserves a great presentation site and you provided that.

Edit: AND the invitation "flyer" at the top of this thread matches the site too. This is like a whole wedding package, all coordinated and pretty. (It takes a woman to see it this way )

Well, that kept me at work until the end today! What a great recital. I didn't know any of the pieces, but it was a delight to listen to them all, and to all the different styles in pianos, much less playing.

And the invitation and the web site made me feel like I was in a grand concert hall with ornate railings and patterned carpets, and ladies with long gloves and fans

Originally posted by gerg:Tina, I am hoping you will participate one of these days! Don't ever say "I'm not good enough"! Have you seen the Mazurka Marathon thread?

Yes, I hope so too and thanks very much for your encouraging spirit Yes, I have indeed seen the Mazurka thread. Read every page the other day and daydreamed just a bit! I don't think even the simplest Chopin work is within my ability yet (but I don't KNOW that because I don't know what piece that would be!) but I will get there!

This was an amazing accomplishment. I've listened to them all and know now why I didn't join in! Beginners? Ha! These are all wonderful and most sound like they are played by advanced players! Awesome! I've played a couple of these before(not as well however). Kathleen your playing certainly shows your passion for Chopin! You sound very professional! And the site is Great! Kudos to Gerg and Ramona!

Congratulations to all of you for your amazing accomplishments! ! I just finished listening to all of them and I am so impressed! The webpage is gorgeous, and the invitation was such a special touch as well (I take it that purple/violet was Chopin's favorite color? Good choice!). What a special and loving tribute to Chopin- I can imagine he is out there somewhere, smiling and happy that he has inspired all of you to play so beautifully.

I intend to listen again, next time with the scores in front of me because I want to see how you have all made the scores come to life. And while I don't wish to really single anyone out, I must compliment Kathleen at this point for her beautiful playing of #17: Kathleen, your playing is gorgeous and heartfelt! This prelude is one of the few that I'm familiar with, and you did as good a job as I've heard on any professional recording. You are often hard on yourself and really shouldn't be- Great job!

Congratulations! All the pieces were absolutely amazing and played with such heartfelt devotion and dedication. Chopin would be proud!You guys are an inspiration to all those of us who truly are at the "beginner" level.

Oh, and the mere idea of doing a recital like this was great. It must have been so motivating to know you were doing it for this group project, so to speak. I'm thinking something like this should be more regular.

Would I ever love to send out CD's with the T-shirt transfers. It have taken me 3 days and I'm still just half-way through ripping and then I have to burn to a CD. But once that is done...I can just make copies. I'm serious. If people want a CD (and they are super cheap), I will be glad to send one along also.

..Still not working here in New England! It also doesn't work on my husband's PC, so it's not a Mac issue (thank goodness). Every other webpage loads just fine, so it's unique to the chopinrecital page and (apparently) unique to NE (or, ? MA.).I'll keep trying, it will probably work later, but- just so I understand- can someone who is computer-knowledgeable out there explain to me why this is happening? It's quite frustrating, and having no idea why only compounds the feeling! And please speak slowly... this is not my field !

Theowne-Thanks for your suggestion- Good news and bad news:Good -I can get the webpage doing what you instructed, BUTBad -I cannot play the preludes! For most of them, I get this error message:"The file you have uploaded or downloaded is too big!Anonymouse isn't able to support such big files any longer!"

Some of the shorter preludes came on during my brief trial, but most will not.At least it's a start in the right direction.. thanks again-

Chardonnay: The message you got might mean something is different with your computer or your sever? When it read that it "isn't able to support such big files any longer," that has to be a clue that the problem is coming from your end. Can you call your server? Or did you do something different with your computer since the last time you went on the web site? Changed some settings, etc.?

Kathleen, the error message is coming from the service that he used to access the site, that I provided to him (annymouse.org), not his computer.

It's an automatic proxy website, which means that it gives him a "fake" IP address. Usually this is done so that people in Canada or China can access sites that are normally blocked to Canadian citizens or Chinese citizens, and etc. So that's why Chardonnay was able to visit the site, but he can't download large files because they would have to go through the proxy website which costs them money.

In this case, it confirms that for some reason the website is not allowing access to Chardonnay's IP address. Basically it has banned users from the set of IP addresses (which should correspond to region) from some reason. Either that, or Chardonnay's internet service is banning the recitals website, or the websites hosted on that server.

I can't imagine why this would happen, maybe you it's time to phone your internet provider.

Theowne,The website worked for me initially, right from the beginning, but for some reason will still not load for me here in central MA. Interestingly, earlier today I had to swing by the office (closer to Boston) and I took my computer to check- it worked there! But back home in central MA., it still won't load.

If this continues, I'll contact Verizon and Greg to see if this can be fixed somehow.

Sorry, don't wish to stray off-topic, but if I am having this problem- is it possible anyone else is also??

Quote:

Kathleen, the error message is coming from the service that he used to access the site, that I provided to him (annymouse.org), not his computer.

Er- not that it really matters- but I am a "she", not a "he" (Do I talk like a man?)

I suspect the cause has to do with the same reason Kathleen's avatar won't load right now: A server is down somewhere in the network.

It is hosted through Gate.com. Since they are not in the office on weekends, there is not a lot I can do. I bought a product that should be able to handle the load easily. If their server is down, as appears to be the case, they need to fix it. Worst case it will be unavailable all weekend - and Kathleen and I should be re-imbursed (but probably won't be.)

Picture does not load, but this gets you to the site and (for me at least) allows access to the music. Some sort of DNS resolution issue.

No, still doesn't work here in Worcester, MA. (Verizon) The page doesn't even begin to load. The error messages from the Internet Explorer program indicate that the website doesn't exist.Maybe tomorrow.Sadly,Ch.

It could be possible that you guys just have the page cached, and that it's not really working.

Playadom, in English, exactly what do you mean?! Are you still having problems with access?Piano again, are you a Verizon customer?It seems this is becoming a more widespread problem [/b]

Chardonnay:Most browsers store a 'travel record' of stuff you've seen, heard, or downloaded from the web. When you access the stuff again, some or all of it is already on your computer, making it much quicker to load.

There is someone who deserves special mention and a great big "thank you" in inspiring this recital:

C C Chang (CCC on PianoWorld). He's very busy finalizing publication of his book, "Fundamentals of Piano Practice." He will be announcing its publication here on PianoWorld very soon.

He breaks down the seemingly impossible (i.e. Adult "beginners" playing Chopin) into the possible and accessible. Without his book, I do not believe I would have had the confidence to suggest we could pull this off.

BookSurge is the publisher. I would highly recommend a copy of the book once it is published.

This has been a wonderful thread to find just as I took delivery on the family piano (Wednesday). Coincidentally, I found that my stash of music contains a hard-bound volume, belonging to my great-grandmother, that contains the preludes and etudes. Inspired, I fumbled my way through Prelude #4, although it wasn't a pretty sight -- oops, I mean sound.

I'm a little perplexed by Gerg's message, though. Are parts of CCC's book on practicing already available? I'd love to get started.